(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to instruction, training, coaching, practicing, acquiring fundamental skills and entertainment in the sports of ice and roller hockey.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Ice and roller hockey are fast and dynamic sports. Each player's on-ice position constantly changes. Team and individual play continually alternates from offense to defense and back again, usually in a matter of seconds or fractions of seconds.
Hockey instruction usually begins with the demonstration or explanation of a skill, tactic, or maneuver by the instructor, followed by repetitious execution (practice) by players. Practice sessions typically include individual skill development and team preparation. Speed and power skating (explosive starts and stamina building) drills as well as stickhandling, passing, shooting, checking, and other individual aspects of the game are usually incorporated into practice sessions. Selected team plays are practiced as well; for example, plays which require constant repetition include those that originate in the face-off circles, those that develop while in offensive command of the puck, and/or those that occur while executing defensive maneuvers.
It is generally recognized that the amount of time spent practicing on the ice bears a strong relationship to the attainment of skills. However, it is also generally recognized that within most geographical areas there is a shortage of available ice time. There is on-going competition for ice time and therefore blocks of time for instructing, training and coaching is limited for many players and teams. In the struggle and scramble for quantitative ice time, attention to the optimal qualitative use of that time has been subordinated.
Currently, the objectives of ice hockey trainers, instructors and coaches are reached with few or no technological aids. For example, electromechanical devices for controlling on-ice playing variables and repeating specific conditions, so that individual skills and team play can be enhanced, is virtually nonexistent. Similarly, electronic measuring devices and computer assisted (or interactive computer "games") technology for training, coaching or entertainment are virtually nonexistent. Devices currently used for instruction/practice in ice hockey include:
(1) nylon parachutes pulled by the skater(s) (used to increase drag, and therefore, the skater's leg strength by overcoming the drag),
(2) surgical tubing attached to a harness on the skater's shoulders and, at the lowest point, to the skates causing the skater to bend at the knees and waist while skating (a preferred skating position for ice and roller hockey),
(3) lengths of wooden boards (or hockey sticks) placed on the ice for practicing jumps and other skating maneuvers, and
(4) orange plastic traffic cones, used as pathmarkers for skating drills.
Devices (1) and (2) mentioned above are designed to increase players' strength and form but do not provide instruction/practice in the skills, moves and maneuvers which are particular to ice and roller hockey. Devices (3) and (4) described above can be used to practice skating maneuvers in hockey but suffer from their placement on the surface of the ice because the skater is forced to pay undue attention to the surface of the ice.
It has been difficult to provide players with precise conditions that would allow them to emulate ideal maneuvers or to practice against an ideal opposing player or team. The problem is controlling the variables. In existing practice sessions a player usually practices opposite the instructor or other players. Since every "opposing" player or instructor is prone to human error or simply fatigue, maneuvers and skills cannot be repeated in a desired optimal fashion. This process inhibits players from practicing a desired maneuver until it is perfected: it lengthens the learning process and "loses" many players except for the truly motivated. Players may learn "bad habits" while playing opposite a less than carefully structured opponent or by emulating a less than proficient example. Instructors, trainers and coaches face a daunting challenge, which is to control, in a time-effective manner, the conditions (variables) on ice, so as to achieve enhanced individual skills and team play.
In the field of computer or video games these products are for entertainment and diversion rather than for instruction, cogr.tion, and mental drill in how to acquire the skills to play the sport. The basic principles and skills necessary to train for and to play hockey are not taught by these video or computer games.
In the computer or video games, the game player's skill is essentially to master the programmer's game. Accordingly, the game player needn't know anything about hockey other than the fact that goals are scored by pucks entering the goal net. Video game players learn little about how to execute any of the hundreds of skills essential to ice hockey, nor will they acquire practice in the realities of playing ice hockey, including individual or team positional and situational play for either offensive or defensive situations.
None of the prior devices or methods noted above provide the student with cognitive information concerning principles, tactics, maneuvers, and skills used in playing ice hockey. In addition, these devices do not enable the player to receive quantitative feedback concerning his/her progress in mastering the cognitive aspects of the sport and/or biomechanical or physiological measures.